


new york wanderer

by niniadepapa



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, a HIMYM au, and of course we ignore the horrible finale because whYYYY, but mostly stella, so milah is a mix between pilot/part of s1 robin and stella, this was prompted by an anon after the alternate ending was released, à la ted/the mother style
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-18 06:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2339243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niniadepapa/pseuds/niniadepapa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>killian and emma's paths cross many a times in new york city, not knowing that the other is the one. himym inspired au.</p>
            </blockquote>





	new york wanderer

**Author's Note:**

> prompted by an anon on tumblr after the himym alternate ending was released.  
> for the sake of aus, a lot of things are changed and robin’s character doesn’t exist because seriously there was no way some lady from ouat fitted her. so - milah’s a mix between stella and early robin days. but mostly stella.

**september 2005**

Killian had never been too sure of many things in his life apart from Star Wars being the best cinematographic piece in history and that the way that he pronounced encyclopedia was indeed right whereas the way everybody else did was wrong. By this point in his life, he was still naive and hopeful enough to believe in such things like destiny, fate, and happily ever afters. 

Alas, the night that his best friends since college, David and Mary Margaret, got engaged, Killian declared his intent on finding  _the_  one for him, because if there was one thing that he was sure above anything else in his life, it was that he’d make one hell of a husband. He’d be good at it, and a good kisser, and good at caring and making the one laugh and just basically making her happy.

And thanks to his friend - ‘ _I_  am your best friend Killian, not David!’ - Victor, and his stupid game of ‘have you met Killian?’, that very same night, Killian met Milah. In his mind, ‘the one’.

So absorbed he was in her that he barely missed the brunette groaning in frustration on her phone and fleeing The Golden Compass as if it was burning in flames.

On the other side of the city, that same night, Emma sat in her favorite booth at the _other_ Golden Compass waiting for Ruby to arrive after calling her and reminding her that they were meeting at the one on the East Side. (She somehow had guessed her best friend would end up on the other one, she was scatterbrained that way.) It was Emma’s 21st birthday, and they were getting drinks - legally in her case - for the very first time. 

Opposed to the guy on the other side of the city who believed in soulmates and karma and mystical signs that took place whenever you and the person you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with, Emma was practical, a bit cynical, but overall a pretty balanced and healthy person. After a childhood spent bounced around from one foster home to another and convincing herself that she was nothing special and that was the reason why nobody even tried to take a chance on her, she had developed a fierce determination to hold onto the people that chose to have her in her life. People like her best friends. People like Graham, the sweetest, most caring, smiling idiot to ever walk the Earth, who constantly made her laugh and managed to bring the goofy side of her, making-her-breakfast-sing side included. 

Her boyfriend who, surprise surprise, was late, which she blamed on the fact that he was probably getting her a late birthday present.

Being the down-to-Earth, practical person that she was, the cold shiver that ran down her spine when she got a call from his phone was completely unexpected.

So were the news of his death by a gunshot at an attempted robbery downtown.

Only days after his funeral she dared to open the present he had been carrying with himself, probably on his way to meet her, when he was shot. It was a red leather jacket, and a note. ‘So I can look as badass as you in mine. xxx’.

* * *

 

Milah, being divorced and mother of a kid, hadn’t given in to Killian’s advances yet, and had insisted on staying friends. He had agreed, even if he wasn’t okay with it at all - he wanted all of her, he wanted to kiss her and hold her and sweep her off her feet, to take her and her son to the zoo and buy them ice cream and do the grown-up stuff that his heart screamed he was ready to. 

Miserable and confused as he was about his dilemma, he shouldn’t have left Victor convince him to drink the tray of shots Leroy, the bartender, had dubbed as ‘the Dragon’. Especially after realizing the very next morning when he woke up with no memories at all of what he had done after downing that last shot, but with a sprained ankle, a pineapple on his bedside table and a naked girl on his bed instead. 

_And_  a very annoyed Milah who informed him about the twenty calls of his she had gotten the previous night, begging her to give him a chance.

Needless to say he didn’t remember at all the blond girl he had run into at the gentlemen restrooms, who had barked at him for barging into the ladies room - or what she  _thought_ was the ladies room - and calling him all kind of names. He had dutifully left her to her devices and instead met a girl in the actual ladies room that he walked into. 

Emma had been hammered out of her mind too that night, after Ruby insisted on her trying to have some fun and finally decided to spike her coke with some of those shots Leroy was giving around. 

She didn’t remember the guy from the restroom either. 

* * *

 

Once Ruby had profusely apologized for the incident with the shots, she begged Emma to join her on St. Patrick’s day at a club downtown, insisting on her trying to move on and stopping hiding in their apartment, consumed by grief after Graham’s passing. Even knowing she wouldn’t be the best date her friend could look for, she agreed, but at the first occasion she got to flee, she took it. It wasn’t like she was especially eager to talk to Neal of all people - he  _was_  her ex, after all, and they hadn’t being in friendly terms for years, but hey, at this moment in her life, even the most dreaded faces were quite welcome to see, - but as soon as she bumped into him on the dancefloor and he mentioned he was working some underfunded company that took in abandoned children and they were pretty much constantly in need of books, clothes et al, she offered to give him her old sack of clothes that she always forgot to throw out or bring to some charity. 

What she hadn’t counted on was Neal taking off his clothes as soon as she left the living room to search for said old clothes. Or his explaining of it being his move, ‘the naked man’. 

She also hadn’t expected him to give her some of the best advice she had gotten in a really long time and who prompted her to go back to school and study economics. 

It wasn’t until he was out the door that she realized she had forgotten her yellow umbrella at the club. 

Luckily for Killian, the yellow umbrella was at the door when he was about to leave the same club after he had ditched a very drunk green-suit wearing Victor, intent on visiting Milah and her son no matter the hour.

Luckily for him, she  _finally_  said yes.

And even luckier for him, she said yes to his proposal just months later.

* * *

 

Killian had imagined  _the_  day in his head since he was a wide-eyed, wild and full of hope teenager. And even if not everything was to be as he had planned at that time - it wasn’t being celebrated in Central Park, nor were the vows being sung a cappella, - it was gonna be pretty damn close to it just because he was going to marry  _the_  one.

Except that he didn’t. Instead, Milah left him at the altar, and ran back to her ex-husband’s arms, an extremely wealthy guy named Robert Gold. 

Months later, in an attempt to cheer him up, Victor and David convinced Leroy to let them open The Golden Compass for a night. It  _did_  take his mind off things for the night, and at one point they even decided on changing the bar’s name and calling it Puzzles. ("And people'll wonder 'Why puzzles?' And we'll go 'That's the puzzle.'" "...That's _genius_.") But not even their most outrageous nights out or incredibly singular people they met could lift the new baggage added on his shoulders, aptly labeled as ‘left at the altar’.

Some time later, Emma accepted to accompany his friends to watch this movie that apparently everybody was completely nuts about, called ‘The Wedding Bride’ or something, some cliché romcom where the main character planned on marrying some supposedly awful guy but the very day of the wedding chose to go back to his ex instead. While all of them guffawed at this Kieran Jones guy, she shook her head, and insisted on it being such a parody of some real guy out there that she felt pity for him just on principle. 

“I think the red cowboy boots are a turn on,” she said once they were outside, and she ignored the gasps of her friends and the couple behind her. 

One day she’d realize that it was David and Mary Margaret standing at her back, who’d gone to watch the movie for the third time and had indeed heard her, and ran to tell Killian how some random girl actually thought his boots were sexy.

_That_  cheered him up.

* * *

 

He probably shouldn’t have listened to Victor when he told him he mustn’t answer any questions from his students at his first class until the end of the period. 

He really shouldn’t. Especially when he spent half of it talking about naval history and ignoring the expressions on his students’ faces, which went from baffled to amused. If he had been paying more attention and not flushing in excitement as he kept going on and on about the subject he was quite eager to teach, he might have noticed the blond head who actually giggled at the joke he had rehearsed endlessly for that day.

Emma had spent the five minutes prior the class started telling the girl sitting at her side practically everything that had led her to the class, only to discover that the pretty blue-eyed girl had meant to ask her what train she had taken to get to campus. One minute they were talking about the class, the next Emma was offering her to move in with her - Ruby’s room was now free after she had started her new job and had found a new apartment closer to it. 

Thus, Emma and Aurora became friends and roommates the same day that Killian taught his first class. Or rather his first  _two_  classes: Economics 301 per error, and Naval History.   

* * *

 

Even if he’d have never pegged himself as the cliché professor dating a student, that was exactly what happened to him. And funny enough, it wasn’t with the girl whose path had been crossing with him so many times since that fateful night in 2005. 

He met Aurora one day in the hallways, and was pretty enchanted by her pretty face but strong character, opposed to her fragile-looking frame. They hit it off quickly enough, and after a couple of dates he was already - as he always did - dreaming of futures and dreams and the very same nonsense his friends warned him about every single time he dated a new girl. He was bound to listen to them some day, but it wasn’t _that_ day. 

But, as the cliché goes, student and professor affairs never had a happy ending. Aurora stopped answering his texts and broke it off due to the complications that could cause them - him with the school board, her for her future and the possible rumors if she ever took one of his classes or whatever, but she didn’t know what a pain in the ass he could be once he put his mind on it. He showed up at her apartment and tried to change her mind about them and give it another go, but everything went awry once, in an attempt to show her how much they had in common, he picked up random objects in her room. 

It turned out, the album of that group he favored was her roommate’s. So was the last August W. Booth’s novel sitting on her desk. And, as it turned out, so was the bass on her bed. (“She has a band.” “ _Damn_ that’s cool.”) 

Visibly upset, Aurora kicked him out of her apartment, ignoring his soft inquiry about her roommate’s number. 

Sadly for him, he forgot the yellow umbrella he had once found a long time ago that St. Patrick’s Eve at a club.

Luckily for Emma, she found it right inside her apartment, and as soon as she entered Aurora’s room to tell her how crazy it was that it had suddenly appeared in there like due to some sort of magic, she found her crying. She ran to console her as any nice friend would, and found out how she had been dating the guy who had taught them Economics 301 by mistake, but what truly rocked her world was Aurora’s explanation as to why they had split up.

“He has a thing for you!”

Emma just gaped at her, completely dumbfounded - she hadn’t even  _talked_  to the guy, just seen him from her seat at the 15th row during those brief 15 minutes he had rabbited on about ships and life at sea and whatever. When she tried to refute her, because, really, even if he had casually chosen the stuff that belonged to hers from everything else in Aurora’s room it didn’t mean a thing, her roommate’s eyes turned dreamy as she stared at her, counting everything about her that surely everyone out there fell for - the tiny frown between her eyes when she read the newspaper, how she braided a strand of hair whenever she was nervous or impatient, the way her eyes sparkled... 

Aurora kissed her gently on the lips, to Emma’s bafflement, and seconds later she was greeted by Aurora’s stricken face. “I might have some stuff to figure out.”

“Yeah, you do,” she agreed, shushing the other girl’s apologies away and hugging her to her side. It was kind of nice to know that it wasn’t only her who felt lost and confused and without a clue what to do with their lives. 

And so, Emma and  Aurora stopped being roommates the same day Killian lost his yellow umbrella, and Emma got it back.

———————————————————————————————————————————

Funnily enough, Aurora’s sudden realization that she was, indeed, attracted to girls drove Emma to meet the next guy that she’d ever date since Graham was gone. After she moved out, she started her new roommate hunt, and with it the numerous interviews with every kind of creep and weirdo to ever walk the city of New York. She thought she had always had a thing catching liars and messed up individuals, but she had to admit this Peter guy fooled her alright. He looked mature and focused and kind and interested in what she had to say, with his framed glasses and his smile and eager comments in the exact moments they were needed. 

Maybe it was because she was trying out all of this trusting people more or whatever that Ruby kept insisting she did, or that she was feeling a bit down after Aurora left and just wanted to have someone to share the rent with again, but she had let him take a look at the apartment. She had no idea how, the freaking punk came back when she was in class, sneaked in with a couple of his friends and stole some stuff, the TV and some of her furniture included. 

If she ever laid eyes on him again, she swore she’d  _kill_  him. 

Thus, she had to buy some new crap for the living room, such as a  new shelf and a coffee table. She decided to check out the quaint furniture shop a couple of blocks from her place, and that was when she met Walsh. 

He had been shamelessly checking her out since she walked into the shop, and after he helped her carry the coffee table she bought to her building, he invited her to have a drink with him. He led her inside the Golden Compass, and once inside they got to talking. He even told her about how the last time he had been at that bar, he swore it had been called Puzzles. ("Why call it Puzzles though? ...unless that's the puzzle...!")

When she was about to go, he stood up eagerly. “Hey, can we go on a date sometime?”

She had been so surprised she froze, until she shook herself and gave him a pitying look. “Walsh, look, I - I was in love once a while ago and he… died.”

He grimaced, realizing his mistake. “Oh. I’m sorry.”

She waved away his apology. “It’s silly, but it’s like the first lottery ticket I ever bought was - kaboom! Jackpot! And I’m pretty sure I’m not going to win again, not like that, anyway. So I don’t usually buy any lottery tickets.”

With that, she tried to say goodbye again, but before she could leave, he had slipped his card inside her purse with a shy smile. “Just in case you ever change your mind.”

* * *

 

Ruby had been over the moon when she heard about Walsh, and she encouraged her to give him a chance. And even if he was sweet and kind and overall what every other girl might have wanted in a boyfriend… it was just not  _the_  one. She hated being reduced to the dreamy girl with hopes and dreams of true love, but she had once had it, and had lost it, and if she didn’t get to find the very same again, then she’d rather be alone. 

But she wasn’t keen on sharing with Ruby her doubts, though, and not especially once she found out her friend had fallen for some guy who had attempted to hit on her with some move called the Lorenzo von Matterhorn. Emma had heard about this guy and the mysterious moves he played on every single - and sometimes not even that - woman in Manhattan and even Brooklyn and New Jersey, but she would have never guessed Ruby would actually go and not only fall to one of those stupid moves of his, but fall for  _him_. She was worried alright for her friend, and she would have to check out this Victor guy - if that was his real name, - so he didn’t play with Ruby’s heart just to have a new notch on his belt. (Or his beloved suits, from what Ruby told her). 

Meanwhile, Killian had run into Aurora and her new girlfriend, a beautiful girl named Mulan, and he was pleased to discover that there were no hard feelings between them even after how things had ended between them. He had spent the entire week witnessing an argument between Mary Margaret and David about what should they choose for their wedding - band or DJ, and of course he had been dragged into their drama. Alas, he was now responsible of searching for a band that wasn’t booked already or willing to play for his friends’ wedding. At that point he was concerned he’d have to beg for random people in the street to sing something at the reception, but luckily he remembered about the bass on Aurora’s bed that hasn’t really been hers.

“Hey, your roommate - does she still have that band?”

* * *

 

Emma had eagerly agreed to the gig Aurora had told her about, and once she told Ruby about it they realized it was the same wedding this Victor guy had invited her to come to with him. Emma knew her friend was worried of the inevitable introductions and of said moment going awry, but she was actually quite excited about it, after all she had heard about him - good and maybe not so good, to almost creepy. The wedding would be taking place in Farhampton, and seeing as Walsh had a house there, he had lent her his key so she could come and go as she pleased there for the weekend. 

(.)

As the guests attending the wedding started flooding the charming hotel, Killian realized the time when he’d have to share with his friends that he was moving to Chicago the next day was approaching. He hadn’t told them about the job he had been offered by one of his ex-colleagues, nor had he wanted to tell them about his need for a fresh start, or his constant fear of bumping into Milah in every corner of the city, or even the unpleasant feeling at the pit of his stomach whenever he run into some ex of his, reminding him of his failure at finding the love of his life and the hopes and dreams he had once had. 

He knew David and Mary Margaret would throw a fit once they heard but after some pondering they’d accept it. He was way more worried about Victor’s reaction - he was too much of a drama queen not to put up some of his schemes just so he wouldn’t leave, so he was especially afraid of him. To his relief, Victor had been too swept up by this girl he had been seeing - probably the first one that Killian remembered him even mentioning by name, and that was saying something, - and who he planned to bring to the wedding. They had been too shocked by this new revelation to protest about their newfound job of judging the poor girl and giving their approval before he kept dating her or not.

Maybe it was for the best if he left, after all. David and Mary Margaret were getting married, Victor was settling down, Aurora had a girlfriend, Milah and his story had been made into an awful movie that had beaten some record in box offices for three months in a row. Things were changing, indeed. 

(.)

Bass on one hand and bag on the other, she hadn’t really expected to find Walsh once she opened the door to his house - he had told her he wouldn’t be able to come with her for the weekend, after all.

She hadn’t been remotely ready for him to fall on one knee and shove a diamond under her nose, all eager eyes and wide smiles shining up at her. “Will you marry me?”

She stood still, bag falling to the ground with a soft sound, and she carefully laid the bass on the couch and, with a soft excuse, asked him for a minute. She quietly slipped outside to the porch, and hugged one of the wooden posts, staring at the clouds.

“Hey, Graham. It’s me. Sorry to interrupt - I know you’re probably hunting or playing darts around. Look, I… I’ve got a thing going on here. I think that I’ve been holding myself back from falling in love again. And I think it’s because I can’t let you go.”

She felt tears gathering at the corner of her eyes, and her voice broke, but it was Graham up there, and he had been one of the few people she had never minded to see her at her most vulnerable. “You’re not here anymore so… I have to ask this. Would it be okay if I moved on?”

She hadn’t even finished when a gust of wind flew around her, curls dancing in front of her face and tickling her, and the longing for his smiling face and the way he’d pick up a strand of her hair and tickle her in the face with it hit her hard and fast. She choked back a sob. “I’ll take that as a yes. In that case, I’ll get back in there.”

She turned around, taking a couple of steps, but froze and went back. “I guess this is it. For real this time… Bye, Graham.”

She let go of her past and moved towards her future.

She declined Walsh’s offer, and picked up her bass and bag and went back to the hotel where the wedding would be taking place and most of the guests were staying. 

* * *

 

Killian heard someone closing the door on the room next to his the night before the wedding, and jumped, startled - they had told him one of the rooms was haunted by a ghost, and even if he hadn’t been too trusting once he heard the story, he had been told it would be empty after Mary Margaret’s mother had called and told them her flight had been delayed and she’d be arriving in the morning. 

He paced towards the tiny terrace every room was equipped with, and peeked over the railing, all too curious. He only got a glimpse of red before the door connecting room and terrace was slummed shut. 

Unless it was a ghost who favored leather jackets, he was inclined to agree on the next-door-guest being a girl. 

A girl whom he could hear crying through the thin walls of the hotel.

* * *

 

After the ceremony, Killian finally got to meet Victor’s mysterious girl, a vibrant, bubbly brunette named Ruby in a fitting red dress and matching red lipstick who, at one smile and batting of her eyelashes, stole all of their hearts. She mentioned something about a friend of hers meeting her later, but Killian was too busy staring at the girl playing bass to focus on what she was saying.

She had to be Aurora’s roommate, then. He had to admit she was beautiful, and had the saddest, most sparkling and enchanting eyes he had ever seen.

But he had to leave, and there was nothing left for him anyway, and he had been bruised and battered too much by one too many one night stands and failed relationships and broken promises to try again, so he said his farewells to his friends - tears and high fives to everlast any other high five to ever happen included - and left for the train station that would take him back to the city, where he’d pick up what was left of his bags and hail a cab  to take him to the airport.

What he hadn’t counted on was on the lady sitting at the station at the bench, who insisted on him calling her ‘Granny’ and entertain her for the time they had to spend waiting for the train, which was already 20 minutes late. And by 'entertain' she meant telling her why he had left the wedding so early, and bit by bit, she kept asking him everything that had led him to be there, in the rain and umbrella-less, in his suit and waiting for a train and missing the reception of his best friends’ wedding. 

It wasn’t short, not by a long shot, and he started feeling pretty self-conscious after a while, thinking himself some kind of Forrest Gump wannabe. 

To his surprise, Granny didn’t get tired of his talking, but looked at him curiously and prodded instead. “The girl playing the bass - was she pretty?”

He flustered. “Um, yeah. She was… beautiful, actually.”

“And what if she is the one?”

He rolled his eyes, even though something stirred in his chest at her words. “I told you already, I’m not willing to let some other girl who is not the one to step over my heart. I’m moving to Chicago, and that’s the end of it.”

She said nothing for a while, and he had almost been fooled into believing that she’d let it rest, but no such luck. “Look, I’m just gonna say it. Is it that girl in the yellow umbrella?”

He craned his neck to his other side, quirking an eyebrow at her because, seriously, this was just plain ridiculous, there was no way this girl was…

…standing there, in his yellow umbrella, waiting for the train.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Granny just shoved him out of the bench with an impatient tug on his sleeve. “There you have your sign.  _Go_.”

(.)

Emma’s musings were interrupted when the guy who she recognized as the best man asked her to share her umbrella with him.  _His_  umbrella, or so he claimed. 

There was no way she was letting this _Killian Jones_ , if that was even his real name, to steal her umbrella. 

Emma just looked at him quizzically, amused despite herself.  “Wait, why is your name familiar?” At that, he groaned, hiding his face behind his hand.

“Please don’t tell me you watched The Wedding Bride.”

She frowned, even more confused than before, until it clicked. Kieran Jones. Killian Jones. Huh. “Oh.  _Oh_.” She gave him an apologetic smile. “Yeah, I did, and sorry about that but no, I didn’t mean that. I took one of your classes, actually.”

He beamed at her, even dripping wet from the rain. “You did? I’m sorry, I don’t remember you.”

“It was brief but intense. Economics 301,” she said, and laughed out loud at the way his face morphed from delight to horror.

“Oh. You’re Aurora’s roommate, right?”

“Yeah.”

They stared at each other, and she felt her heart hammering against her chest echoing the rain splattering on the pavement. He looked from the umbrella above their heads to the red leather jacket she wore, and something clicked then, something unspoken and real and raw, and she felt like she knew him already, how they had probably passed one another and maybe touched and shared words but never looking and finding the other. 

He scratched the back of his ear, fingers twitching adorably. “Wow. Weird how we haven’t met before.”

She nodded, cocking her head to the side as she studied him with a smile. “Yeah. Maybe it wasn’t the right time.”

He grinned back. “Maybe it is now.”

(Killian didn’t move to Chicago after all, just as Granny had predicted.)

(Granny in fact was present at their wedding, years later.)


End file.
